The present invention relates to an electronic component cooling unit which is used to cool an electronic component such as a rectifier diode which generates heat.
A heat sink for cooling an electronic component such as a rectifier diode which generates heat has been disclosed, for instance, by Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 55-75198.
The heat sink is as shown in FIG. 7. In the heat sink, an electronic component 13 such as a rectifier diode is fixedly mounted on one side of a mounting member 11, on the other side of which a plurality of heat radiating plates 17 (hereinafter referred to as "radiating plates 17", when applicable) is mounted.
Corrugated radiating fins 19 (hereinafter referred to merely as "radiating fins 19", when applicable) are arranged between the heat radiating plates 17.
In the heat sink, the heat generated by the electronic component 13 is transmitted through the mounting member 11 and the radiating plates 17 to the radiating fins 19, and then radiated into the outside air through the radiating fins 19. Hence, the electronic component 13 is effectively cooled.
However, the conventional heat sink designed as described above suffers from the following difficulties: The electronic component 13 is cooled by natural heat radiation with the aid of the radiating plates 17 and the corrugated radiating fins 19. Hence, the sink is low in cooling efficiency.
In addition, the sink suffers from a problem in the case where the electronic component 13 is bulky; that is, it is large in the amount of heat radiation. In this case, it is necessary to increase the length of the radiating plates 17. However, as the radiating plates 17 are elongated, the efficiency with which the radiating plates 17 transmit heat to the radiating fins is lowered as much as the thermal conductivity. Hence, even if the number of radiating fins 19 is increased to increase the heat radiating area, the cooling power is not increased so much. This means that it is difficult to more effectively radiate the heat from the electronic component 13.